Ben Bradlee, Jr. to deliver keynote address at UMA Convocation

Author and former editor and reporter with The Boston Globe will provide remarks at September 21st event addressing Freedom of Speech, UMA’s theme for academic year

University of Maine at Augusta President Rebecca Wyke is pleased to announce that Ben Bradlee, Jr., noted reporter, editor and author, will deliver the Keynote Address at UMA’s Convocation ceremony on September 21, 2018 at 3:00 p.m. Convocation will be held on the Campus Green of the Augusta Campus. (In case of rain, the venue will be Jewett Auditorium.)

Peter Lodge, a Lecturer in Social Science will frame the academic theme, and Sharon Mahon Sawyer, Assistant Professor of Justice studies, will provide a faculty perspective. Scott Christiansen, a Justice Studies major, will give a student perspective on freedom of speech.

During the Convocation ceremony, UMA will also recognize students identified as Rising Scholars for both academic achievement and promise. Nominated students are those who have excelled in academics, engaged in the UMA community, or are individuals faculty and staff believe show great potential and promise as student scholars.

About the keynote speaker

Mr. Bradlee spent 25 years, from 1979 to 2004, with The Boston Globe — 10 years as a reporter and 15 as an editor. As deputy managing editor, he oversaw the Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church from July 2001 to August 2002, and also supervised the production of a book on the subject, “Betrayal,” published in June, 2002. “Spotlight,’’ a major feature film on The Boston Globe’s investigation, was released in the fall of 2015 and won two Academy Awards, for best original screenplay and best picture.

Mr. Bradlee’s first editing assignment was as Political Editor, supervising The Boston Globe’s State House and City Hall bureaus in 1989 and 1990. He then served as Assistant Managing Editor for local news from January of 1991, to November of 1993, when he was named Assistant Managing Editor for Projects and Investigations. He was later promoted to Deputy Managing Editor, while retaining the same position. In that capacity, Bradlee oversaw the Spotlight Team (The Boston Globe’s investigative unit) and several other reporters who produced long-term projects or series. He also worked on an ad-hoc basis with reporters on the metropolitan, business, national and foreign staffs in producing special projects, and occasionally, wrote major pieces himself.

He covered the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis and also reported overseas for The Boston Globe from Afghanistan, South Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Vietnam.

A graduate of Colby College, Bradlee served in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan from 1970-1972. On his return to the United States in 1972, he went to work as a reporter for the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise, remaining there until mid-1975.

Mr. Bradlee has also authored several books, including The Ambush Murders; Prophet of Blood, co-authored with Dale Van Atta; Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North; and The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams. His most recent book, THE FORGOTTEN: How the Abandoned People of One Pennsylvania County Elected Donald Trump and Changed America, will be published on October 2, 2018.

In 2016, Bradlee was appointed to the Boston Public Library’s Board of Trustees by Mayor Martin J. Walsh, filling the board’s unofficial writer’s seat that has been held by Doris Kearns Goodwin, David McCullough, Dennis Lehane and other notable authors.